For many, Halloween is just another holiday, an opportunity to throw a party, dress up, and eat candy. But there are a few who ardently love the spooky season and wish to live in perpetual Halloween. Jeff Eggener, a resident of New Lenox, Illinois, is the latter kind and puts up an elaborate Halloween display annually, dubbed “Haunted Manor of Evil.”
He loves Halloween so much that all he “wanted for Christmas was Halloween all year long.” His love for the spooky season takes center stage for two months every year when he puts up his creation, wherein he crafts giant outdoor Halloween decorations with frightening elements, and it is mind-blowing.
Jeff is a maximalist decorator when it comes to Halloween. The New Lenox carpenter takes his skills to another level with gigantic displays that will frighten even the bravest of men. What started as an innocent decoration in 2015 soon turned into a marvelous obsession.
Talking about himself, Jeff told Homecrux, “I’m a Carpenter. I love animals, music, and of course Halloween. My wife’s birthday is 30 October, so Halloween has always been special around here…About 10 years ago, I decided to go big and make the house the main prop of my haunt. Much too often, the house is forgotten about, and all the props are out front. I wanted to change that. I wanted every stitch at the front of the house to be completely covered by a façade. Even the gutters and downspouts.”
In this first year, Jeff did the main gable with the skull in it. Next year, he included the rest of the house and the fence in his elaborate display. He painstakingly builds everything from scratch and puts up the display in pieces until everything clicks into place like a satisfying puzzle.
“I always strive for an uninviting castle dwelling that was still somewhat beautiful. I stuck with the theme of spiders, webs, skulls, and bat symbols. I added the spikes and chains as details. There are over 1000 spikes on the Haunted Manor of Evil and the other props here. There is a 9-foot web chair and a full-size web coffin that visitors can get in. Both are adorned with spikes and webbing to match the manner.”
Jeff usually sources his materials from the local building supply companies. Explaining the setup, he said, “Façade is all made of wood and is attached right to the brick of my house. The fascia and gutters are all wrapped in wood as well, using brackets to hold them secure. The fence, coffin, and chair, as well as the other pieces, are all made of wood with a little PVC here and there. The spiders are all suspended from cables from above.”
For the 2025 edition of the Haunted Manor of Evil, which is also the haunt’s 10th anniversary, Jeff is putting up nine unnervingly huge spiders to greet guests and trick-or-treaters. He even creates a scavenger hunt within the display, where kids can search for items, disregarding the spooky elements, which is a heartwarming thing for Jeff. His display even provides photo opportunities for visitors in various setups, such as thrones and coffins.
But Jeff doesn’t stop there. He puts on two different costumes during the haunt season. The most popular one is the “Master,” a costume involving him walking on stilts with enormous hands. While the labor of his love wins hearts in his community, the Manor takes annual donations that go to the Ronald McDonald House Charities. He even makes a special donation box matching the haunt with webs, spikes, and light-up features.
Jeff has set up a timeline of two weeks for himself. He hopes to have the Manor up and running in that timeframe, while hoping to build something new as well. The entire project takes around 4 to 6 weeks. He keeps his Haunted Manor of Evil up till November 2, after which the manor is dismantled.
We have seen amazing Halloween displays and larger-than-life setups, but Jeff Eggener’s Haunted Manor of Evil is truly one of a kind and serves the community in more ways than one. We applaud Jeff’s love and labor for Halloween, and cannot wait to see this year’s complete manor.
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